The NFL is short for Not For Long. That is the case for a lot of talented former college football stars, especially when it comes to Desmond Ridder's professional career that is hanging on by a thread. The former Cincinnati Bearcats star helped guide UC to their first-ever College Football Playoff appearance under Luke Fickell in 2021. Ridder went on to be a third-round pick the following spring.
Despite there potentially being something promising with him coming aboard the Atlanta Falcons in 2022, his livelihood of being a starting quarterback quickly went away after the 2023 NFL season. Ridder may have had good leadership traits, running ability and decent touch on his passes, but he lacked any ability to go vertical. More importantly, his awful in-game decisions never went away...
Ridder was traded to the Arizona Cardinals last offseason in exchange for slot receiver Rondale Moore. Although Moore never played a snap for Atlanta due to injury, Ridder was released by Arizona before signing on with the Las Vegas Raiders and their lost cause down the stretch. He even lost to a struggling Kirk Cousins and the Falcons down the stretch on a Monday Night Football game to forget.
With news of Joe Burrow playing meaningful snaps for the Cincinnati Bengals in the preseason, that makes the chances of Ridder being able to stick with his new team even more daunting. Bengals head coach Zac Taylor cited Burrow and other key players will play a bit in their preseason opener on Thursday vs. the Philadelphia Eagles. They will play even more vs. the Washington Commanders later.
Unless Ridder balls out in limited stretches, or vs. the Indianapolis Colts in a few weeks, he is so gone.
Bengals HC Zac Taylor announced Joe Burrow and other big name players will play "several" series on Thursday against the Eagles and even more in their second preseason game vs. the Commanders. pic.twitter.com/pFaqmd3Age
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) August 5, 2025
Ridder is proof that life comes at you fast in the NFL, as he might be out of the league already...
Joe Burrow playing preseason games is bad news for Desmond Ridder
As a lifelong fan of the Falcons, I can tell you first hand that a lot went wrong throughout Arthur Smith's three-year tenure as head coach. He was a first-time head coach who thought he knew everything. Terry Fontenot was a first-time general manager as well, but he was the one who got to keep his job after a down 2023 campaign. Fontenot at least showed an ability to adapt in his role...
The idea behind the Falcons taking Ridder in the third round, in what was a terribly weak quarterback draft class by the way, is that he could be the closest approximation Atlanta could ever have to Smith's ride-or-die guy in Nashville: The one, the only Ryan Tannehill. While Tannehill was a first-round pick out of Texas A&M by Miami for some reason, I never got the hype. Ridder never stood a chance...
While it could have worked using a mobile quarterback in a run-first offense, Atlanta could only win one way with that operation at the helm. It is part of the reason why after three years owner Arthur Blank sought to move on from Smith. He kept Fontenot around, hoping that the guy Blank should have hired in 2021 instead in Raheem Morris could make it work this time around. We shall find out...
As for what this means for Ridder and the Bengals now a year removed from leaving Atlanta, you have to wonder if any of those mystical powers emanating from the Ohio River that once made the Louisville native Ridder a star at UC potentially a quality backup now with the Bengals. Yes, he does have a presence about him at the line of scrimmage. He just has too much Group of Five still in him...
More in-game reps would have given Ridder a fair opportunity to prove his worth, but here we are.